Tips for improving productivity and focus

While the whole time management and goal/reward system is important, there’s another obstacle that frequently stands in my way: focusing on the scheduled task at hand.

Once I actually sit down at my desk, I often have a hard time actually getting sh*t done. I will do anything to avoid doing work. I’ll clean my desk, browse the New York Times, skim the Twitter headlines, respond to messages on my phone, organize my email, make a to-do list, alphabetize my files… I pretend that I’m being productive, but in reality I’m just avoiding my work.

Inspired by this Reddit post, which I found extremely helpful and highly encourage you to read, I’ve designed my own guide for keeping focus while working:

Before you sit down to work

(I usually do these one day prior before I leave the office for the night):

• Write down your 3 Most Important Tasks (MITs) for the day. As I talked about in my previous post about time management, I keep all of my weekly goals/tasks organized in Google calendar. However, when writing down my MITs, I use my Google calendar as a reference and use an old-fashioned post-it and pen to write down my MITs for the day.
• Break down into manageable tasks. Again using a post-it and pen and making a hierarchy of concrete and manageable tasks. For example:
• Revise urban modernity article
• Read over comments that Sara gave you
• Revise document according to Sara’s comments
• Re-read empirical section and revise focusing on improving thick description
• Revise theory section according to reviewer’s comments
• Write an hour by hour task list for the day and include time for breaks or administrative tasks (e.g., checking your email or getting a flu shot).
• Use Chrome Nanny or other similar apps to block access to Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube (adjust according to your addiction status… these three sites are currently on lock down on my desktop 24/7)

When you sit down to do work:

• Have a pen and blank post-it next to you to write down any other “to-do” tasks that come to your mind. So that when you think, “Oh crap, I gotta call my mom back!” or “I need to write Tim an email!” you write down on your post-it, “email Tim” instead of opening your email and entering the rabbit hole labyrinth of Gmail.
• Chew on gum or suck on a cough drop or other hard candy. I heard once that there was scientific research saying that chewing on gum improves your concentration. It works for me.
• Turn off your phone (or put it on airplane mode or put it in another room or do not disturb mode or completely silent), close your email (yes! close it! no one is going to die if it takes you 2+ hours to respond to their email), and shut down your chat windows (Skype, Facebook, iMessage, Gchat, etc… the messages will still be there when you get back, I promise). It might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s more difficult and also more helpful than you might realize.
• If there’s useless and endless chatter happening in your brain, write it down! Keep a doc on your desktop titled, “distractions.” When you find yourself thinking about your ex-boyfriend, or how much you hate your neighbor, or how much your mom upset you last night, or whatever other drama is happening in your life, open that doc and write down what’s on your mind. Just get it all down and then get back to work.
• Tell yourself, “I’m just going to work for 5 minutes and then I’ll take a break.” Even though I know I’m going to keep working after 5 minutes, this tricks my brain every single time! It reluctantly agrees to work for 5 minutes. Once I get started, it’s easy to keep going.
• Sometimes I find myself frozen because I have so many things on my to-do list and I don’t know where to start. I have 4 urgent things that need to get done right then, so I just sit there not doing anything. When this happens, I usually get out a pen and paper and write down a list of “what I would do right now if I had all the time in the world.” After I write down everything I can think of that I need to do, I pick the three most important things on that list and write them on a post-it, ranking them in order of importance from 1-3. I start with number one and work from there. If I finish what’s on that post-it, I go back to the master list, pick out another 3 things and write them on a new post-it. You should have done this already with the 3 MITs, but sometimes I get overwhelmed and need to start over from a master list.
• I love this video by Matthew Hussey on how to handle stress like a Spartan: take out each soldier one at a time; don’t think about the whole army.  
• Turn on your Toggl timer.

While you’re working:

• Break up your work into 25 minute chunks with 5 minute breaks or 50 minute chunks with 10-minute breaks (pomodoro technique).
• Get your music on. I listen to classical or white noise.
• If you find yourself in the middle of a work session, and you get writer’s block, or your mind wanders, or you get distracted, or you want to put your head down and go to sleep, or you just don’t want to work, take a few deep breaths, and:
• Tell yourself some motivational phrases, such as "you got this," or "this will all be over soon," or like that below:

• Focus your mind on a motivational image or think about obtaining something you desire: imagine yourself on the day you graduate with your PhD, or the day you pass your comps, a stack of money, your proud parents, a car… anything that will motivate you to get back to work.
  
• I often close my eyes and imagine myself succeeding in what I’m doing.
• I often tell myself I only have to work for 5 more minutes.
• I'll tell myself, “If I finish this task, I get to watch one episode of New Girl, or treat myself to a Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks" (or something like that).

GO FORTH AND BE PRODUCTIVE AND REWARD YOURSELF FOR HARD WORK!